Hasta La Ideas

This boxy wooden cabin with an assortment of circular and rectangular windows was built by Hungarian studio T2.a Architects in just two days in a forest outside Budapest (+ slideshow).

Bence Turanyi of T2.a Architects designed the Photographer’s House for his friend, photographer Zsolt Batar.

The architect used prefabricated and cross-laminated timber panels to construct the house, meaning it could be put together extremely quickly and easily.

Both the architect and the photographer brought different ideas to the project, but their overall aim was for “a building which looks good and unique, is of excellent quality, and can be built during very short time and for a reasonable price”.

“When two different ways of thinking meet, the result is something completely new,” said Turanyi. “Our conversations about art, architecture and design were brought to life in this house.”

Rectangular windows stretch around each corner of the building, while smaller square and circular windows are positioned along the sides.

There are two floors inside the cabin; an open-plan lounge and dining room make up most of the ground floor, while a pair of bedrooms and bathrooms can be found upstairs.

Wooden panels line walls, ceilings and floors throughout the house, and floor-to-ceiling windows offer views out into the surrounding forest.

Photography is by Zsolt Batar.

Here’s a project description:

The Photographer’s House

Architect Bence Turanyi and photographer Zsolt Batar decided to unify their artistic and professional visions, and the result of their work is an extraordinary house in a forest. The idea behind the building was to create harmony among man, nature and economic aspects. The sustainable wooden house breathes together with the surrounding trees, and its life is documented by the artist who lives in it. The house was one of the favourites of the international jury for Hungary’s Media Architecture Prize 2013.

If I would have to tell one story to define contemporary Hungarian architecture, among the finalists of 2013, it would definitely be the story of Bence Turanyi’s house – this is how Daniel Kovacs, member of the professional jury of the Hungarian Media Prize 2013 commented on The Photographer’s House.

The birth of this exceptional building is the result of the co-operation between an architect and a photographer, which is much more than a traditional client-architect relationship. Owner of the house, renown architectural photographer Zsolt Batar is an old friend of Bence Turanyi. The two brought ideas and ways of thinking from their own areas, and unified them in a common project.

“When two different ways of thinking meet, the result is something completely new. Our conversations about art, architecture and design were brought to life in this house.” – says Bence Turanyi about the crossover experience. For Zsolt Batar, the house is not only a home, but also a source of inspiration. The series about the house has become an important milestone in his artistic career: he records the relationship of the house and the forest day by day, in every season.

Architecture is in a new and challenging situation nowadays thanks to significant changes in the economical and social environment. We still need well-structured, quality houses, but often there is a choice among sustainability, technology and price. The creators wanted a building which looks good and unique, and is of excellent quality, while it can be built during very short time and for a reasonable price. A mere week passed between sending the digital data to the manufacturer and the completion of structural assembly on site, while the House was built in two days. The structural framework of the House is made of prefabricated, cross laminated and glued timber panels (CLT).

The Photographer’s House is a unique example of slow design: you can get your hands dirty while you collect wood from the forest to heat the fireplace, it sharpens all your senses thanks to the vivid presence of the forest, and it creates an emotional bond among man and nature. The House literally breathes together with forest, while in the inside there is the constant smell of wood. And this special smell is part of the living structure of the building. In wintertime, the fireplace heats the house, while during summer nights cool breezes from the woods are let through the open windows.

Architect: T2.a Architects
Location: Pilis forest, near Budapest, Hungary
Architect in charge: Turanyi Bence
Collaborator: Pinczes Eva
Area: 120 sqm
Year: 2012

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in two days by T2.a Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Sweetgrass Productions nous invite à découvrir un nouvel extrait de Valhalla, film sur le ski qui a été récompensé à de nombreuses reprises. Cet extrait nous invite à découvrir une session de ski sans neige, filmé au beau milieu d’une forêt verdoyante. Un superbe extrait, à découvrir en vidéo dans la suite.

A story above all else, “Valhalla” tells of one man’s search for freedom—in life and on two planks. Unconventional in their approach to ski and snowboard filmmaking, Sweetgrass Productions…

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The partners of new Vancouver studio Scott & Scott Architects created this remote snowboarding cabin for their own use at the northern end of Vancouver Island.

The Alpine Cabin by Susan and David Scott is lifted off the ground on six columns made of douglas fir tree trunks, which pierce through the rooms on both storeys.

The exterior clad in cedar, intended to weather to the tone of the surrounding forest, and the interior finished in planed fir.

“The construction approach was determined to avoid machine excavation, to withstand the annual snowfall, to resist the dominant winds and to build in a manner which elevates the building above the height of the accumulated snow on the ground,” say the architects.

The majority of the ground floor is taken up by a combined living room and kitchen, but also includes a bathroom and sauna. Upstairs there are two bedrooms with a study in between.

One corner of the ground floor is cut away to create a spacious porch where firewood and snowboarding equipment can be stored.

The cabin is located in a community-operated alpine recreation area 1300 metres above sea level and is accessible by a gravel road for five months of the year, but otherwise equipment and supplies must be carried on a sledge to the site.

The building is completely off-grid, heated by a wood-burning stove and using water that must be fetched from nearby and carried in.

The architects built the project themselves with the help of friends. “The cabin was constructed out of a desire to directly design and build as a singular act, to work with the freedom one experiences when snowboarding, and in a manner which is centered in the adventure and not bound heavily in pre-determination,” they explain.

Susan and David Scott launched their own practice in February after twelve years of working for established firms.

Other winter retreats on Dezeen include a holiday home that Peter Zumthor designed for himself and his family and one that’s been squeezed into the passageway between two farm buildings in northern Italy.

See more winter retreats »
See more architecture in the snow »

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Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Après sa superbe série intitulée Take Refuge, le photographe américain Kevin Cooley revient avec « Lights Edge » et ses clichés magnifiques où des paysages déserts et nocturnes sont contrastés par des rayons et des impressionnants traits de lumière. Plus d’images dans la suite de l’article.